Li-thiiii-um.... continued.

[Vermilye]

With the amount of storage you have you might consider a 2000 watt inverter rather than the 1500. There are many 1600 - 1700 watt appliances around. I have the stock GoPower inverter, and often wish I could run a larger toaster oven than the 1200 watt I use. I have a 6 slice 1700 watt toaster oven at home that fits a 12" pizza.

[John in Santa Cruz]

we do pizzas in the gas oven, or on the griddle for our Napolean portable gas grill.

[BobG]

John, I think what Jon Vermiley nsays makes sence. I don't remember your wiring or fusing but you have lots of battery capacity. I do like having the ability to run the air conditioning to cool down at bed time. You could easily do the same.



Also, I use an induction water heater/kettle for coffee and whatever in the mornings. It uses a lot of amps similar to an air conditioner. It is used for 2 or 3 hours in the morning for drip coffee and sometimes oatmeal.



It seems to me that you might find a future use for the large capacity of the batteries. I don't know how much it would cost to go a little bigger on the inverter but it will be expensive to re do in the future.



Side note - I wouldn't be surprised to see you add more solar before next year.

[Vermilye]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

we do pizzas in the gas oven, or on the griddle for our Napolean portable gas grill.

I also do pizza in the gas oven, but it takes longer to get up to 400°F, and it heats up the trailer more than an electric toaster oven. I like the option of being able to use either.

I feel a 2000 watt inverter better matched the capability of a standard household receptacle. There are just too many appliances that are a bit more than a 1500 watt inverter can continuously provide.

[John in Santa Cruz]

well, I added up the 2/0 cable + connectors I'd need, as well as the PD 1800 watt converter with an integrated transfer switch, and presented it to my wife, and she was like, wait, $650 just so I can dry my hair? nah, I'll get by.

[John in Santa Cruz]

so, the solar install the local boat fab guy did for me. I don't think I posted these pictures.

we mounted a LGE 360W panel in place of the original 160W panel. to do this, the fridge upper vent had to go, replaced with a plate of HDPE. he fabricated a pair of risers out of some marine aluminum, the new panel is 1,700mm x 1,016mm x 40mm (67 x 40 x 1.6 inch), and mounted them on the original mounts that had been cast into the fiberglass. we used the existing wiring too, just connected the new panel to the MC4 connectors topside, and I connected them to my MPPT controller under the rear bench.

before (top view)


After (side view)

(close rear view)

[John in Santa Cruz]

ah, forgot to say. Marine guy went into that job thinking he was going to replace that original silver mount bar, but discovered it was potted into the fiberglass and called me and said he didn't want to mess with that magic, and felt it was plenty sturdy enough to handle my larger panel on a riser. Its still rock solid after 1800 miles+ of a road trip, including a few hours of driving into head and cross winds while going 65-70ish. so I pronounce it good to go. the marine guy charged me more than I assumed (hah!), but I'm still happy with the result, and we did it on a soft quote. he fabricated an HDPE panel to cover the original refrigerator roof vent (had to go so the larger solar panel could overlap, and entirely useless with the Norcold N2175 DC compressor fridge. he also fabricated a perfect HDPE piece to go in place of the original battery vent, and instead be a weatherproof 12V 40A DC plug (he fabricated the piece, I mounted my receptacle on it, it still needs to be sealed with some clear Urethane (*NOT* Silicone).

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

... he fabricated a pair of risers out of some marine aluminum, the new panel is 1,700mm x 1,016mm x 40mm (67 x 40 x 1.6 inch), and mounted them on the original mounts that had been cast into the fiberglass...

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

... Marine guy went into that job thinking he was going to replace that original silver mount bar, but discovered it was potted into the fiberglass and called me and said he didn't want to mess with that magic, and felt it was plenty sturdy enough to handle my larger panel on a riser...

Rather than being "cast" or "potted" into the fiberglass shell, the aluminum square tube is held on by adhesive, right? This would presumably be the epoxy which ETI used to use.

[Vermilye]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

Rather than being "cast" or "potted" into the fiberglass shell, the aluminum square tube is held on by adhesive, right? This would presumably be the epoxy which ETI used to use.

Depends on when Escape switched from VHB tape to epoxy. My 2011 17B 95 watt solar panel was attached to 1" Square aluminum tubing that was attached to the trailer with VHB tape. They used epoxy until they switched to bolted brackets.

[John in Santa Cruz]

it does look like epoxy on my 2014 21 classic. grey hard stuff. Maybe I misunderstood the FG guy, and he was saying that removing the epoxy would damage the fiberglass roof.

[Rossue]

It is likely 3M 5200; mine has the same setup.

[John in Santa Cruz]

hmmm, 5200 says it stays flexible, this stuff is hard as glass.

[John in Santa Cruz]

meanwhile after trying two portable inverters (one 500W(600 peak), the other 800W(1600 peak) and having both be complete pieces of junk (same day returned to amazon), I ended up with a Renogy 2000W 'pure sine' inverter. this only draws about 20 watts with no load (wow!). it easily powers the wife's hair dryer on high heat (1850 watts!). It also easily powers the ice maker. waiting for a low profile plastic junction 'old box' (designed for cutting into an existing wall rather than being stud mounted before the wall is built). Not going to do a transfer switch, just hook up one 'red' outlet next to the remote on/off switch for this inverter.

[John in Santa Cruz]

AND I installed and wired an outlet and remote switch for the Renogy...

I used a red hospital grade outlet so there'd be no question what outlet was the inverter, heh.



best part is, it has a pilot light!


even better, 2000W inverter ON with no load, it only draws about 1.0-1.5 amp at 14V, thats a pretty darn low idle current.

[Bayner]

I like that red outlet, that's smart.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Bayner

I like that red outlet, that's smart.

silly thing is identical to a regular white or ivory or brown or black one, but double or triple the price because its 'hospital grade'. so $30 instead of $12 or something. BFD. It is a premium outlet, the wiring screws had clamps, so you insert the wire into a hole, and tighten the screw, instead of having to wrap the wire around the screw shaft, something thats always given me grief, and wow a pilot light (I did see regular white/ivory/etc ones in the catalog with the same LED pilot).

[tacchino]

I like the collection of 12V plugs. Where did you source that? Don’t suppose those USB ports are power delivery are they?

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by tacchino

I like the collection of 12V plugs. Where did you source that? Don’t suppose those USB ports are power delivery are they?

I found the triple 1.125" plate with two cigar outlets and the dual USB A (2 amp, not PD) on Amazon, and replaced one cigar outlet with the powerpole thing from PowerWerx. The PP's are each wired w 12/2 to separate 30A fuses the cigar plug to a 20A fuse, and the USB to another 20a fuse. Overkill, perhaps, but I was using the powerpole to run a 300w portable inverter, stuff like that.

[John in Santa Cruz]

so... an update on my actual power usage... first off, since I have sufficient solar, Ive gone ahead and shut off my PD4655L converter, even when I have shore power, mostly just to collect more data.

Its looking like average daily usage with no longer having to be careful about DC usage is more like 800-900 WH/day... at least, thats my solar output, and I *think* thats the total power usage including battery charging inefficiencies. other than the DC compressor fridge, the main DC consumers are the Maxifan and the furnace fan. I haven't used the inverter enough to make a dent in things but I will in 2 weeks when I spend almost a week dry camping at an astronomy event.



so I'm gonna shut off the solar for a few days and let the batts run down some, the switch it back on in a couple of nights, and see what total solar I get the next few days. I did this once before and saw 2KWH/day but it was hazy and I was camping below sea level.

I'm also about to rewire the battery main cables, replacing the AWG 4 with 1/0, and instead of 4's for each batt to seperate 150A fuses, paralleling the batteries normally, and using a single 225A Class T fast blow fuse. I will probably also replace the wires to the inverter with 1/0, at least if I can fit them

The Renogy 2000W PureSine inverter has been freekin awesome, it only draws 1 amp (~13 watts) with no load, and its powered everything I've plugged into it, hair driers, coffee makers and grinders (not concurrently, gotta grind the coffee, THEN brew it, hah hah), an Oreck portable vacuum cleaner (SO much more powerful than the stupid chinese 12V vac I've had).

anyways, more data to come in a few days.

[John in Santa Cruz]

so I've been sleeping in my trailer in our driveway because our master bedroom is under reconstruction, so its almost the same power usage as camping albeit without the water pump usage of showering or daytime toilet use.

I shut the solar off monday night, so the last two full days have been entirely on battery. currently my SmartShunt says my battery is at 70%, I've been quite liberal with the Maxifan and furnace usage... even used the inverter briefly a few times.

I think I'll run one more day, and turn the solar back on tomorrow night. So far, the SmartShunt says the trailer has used 138AH since last full charge (probably late afternoon Monday, its now 1:20am Thursday). I have 412AH battery capacity in theory.

I'll be reporting back with my solar production the couple days following this intentional battery discharge. and yes, the Converter is shut off at the breaker, I know it can charge this thing faster than anything, while drawing 700W off the mains..